# Bill Maher: STFU about food, health, and ESPECIALLY vaccines! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 10, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274 "2009-10-10T04:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/81 "2009-10-13T13:46:54Z")
> [@detop](#): > > I haven’t got my flu shot yet but I’m looking forward to it. In regard to Maher’s antivaccine nuttery, it is a relatively mild case. If you want to see an extreme one, google Jane Burgermeister. According to her, Big Pharma, the WHO, the UN and the Illuminati are planning to kill 5/6 of the world’s population through the flu immunization program. I was going to say Maher may be mild compared to her, but at least she doesn’t have her own TV show. Then I read this: > [@Icerigger](#): > > Now even Limbaugh has jumped on the Anti-Vax band wagon, because the government says you should get a flu shot means it’s nonsense. > > [http://mediamatters.org/print/research/200910070043](http://mediamatters.org/print/research/200910070043) > > Now the right wing is attacking scientific medicine because liberals support it. Limbaugh also shills for Homeopathic “treatments” like Zicam. Are all conservatives that divorced from reality? :eek: And so what happens when a bunch of conservatives who didn’t get flu shots get sick and die? Conservative pundits will say the flu itself was a plot by the government to kill off the opposition? ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/82 "2009-10-13T15:29:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Well that’s our Fascist government for you, demanding that everyone get a flu shot or you’ll be put in FEMA detention camps. :rolleyes: > > There does seem to be a correlation between antivaxery and antigovernment/libertarian views. Ron Paul, for instance (an embarassment to the medical profession) thinks the effort to combat H1N1 is a “hoax” designed to get us to pass a healthcare bill and enrich Big Pharma. His loopier followers see far darker designs afoot. [Here’s the startling evidence for](http://ancavge.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/canadian-doctor-h1n1-vaccination-a-eugenics-weapon-for-mass-extermination)flu-vaccine-as-weapon-of-mass-destruction, as alluded to by a previous poster\*. > > \*who hasn’t posted since warning us of the Bilderberger threat, which probably means he’s been “disappeared”, a fate that threatens anyone who reveals The Canadian doctor they mention, her name is **not** Ghislaine Lanctôt, it is _Guylaine_ Lanctôt and they forgett to mention that she also has been charged for tax evasion (I met her, she’s a nutcase). ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/83 "2009-10-13T17:35:15Z")
> [@detop](#): > > Burgermeister. I thought that was this guy: [http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/sgenetti77/burgeomesiter1.jpg](http://i427.photobucket.com/albums/pp360/sgenetti77/burgeomesiter1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Gesturing\_Mildly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@Gesturing\_Mildly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gesturing_Mildly)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/84 "2009-10-13T18:25:23Z")
> [@detop](#): > > I haven’t got my flu shot yet but I’m looking forward to it. In regard to Maher’s antivaccine nuttery, it is a relatively mild case. If you want to see an extreme one, google Jane Burgermeister. According to her, Big Pharma, the WHO, the UN and the Illuminati are planning to kill 5/6 of the world’s population through the flu immunization program. A friend of mine believes this, seriously, and posts on facebook about it daily. It’s gotten to the point that I’m disinclined to spend time with her, because I know she’ll bring it up, and I’m afraid the ensuing disagreement is going to destroy our friendship. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/85 "2009-10-13T18:28:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Influenza vaccines induce type-specific immunity of short duration; necessarily, then, the herd immunity benefits associated with such vaccination programs are minimal. Not to mention that many people will still fall ill (and spread disease) from any of the non-influenza viruses that also thrive during flu season. If, indeed, many people take false comfort from the flu vaccine and neglect other prophylactic measures, flu vaccines could have a negative public health effect. I disagree with this logic. Regardless of what you think of the value of flu vaccines, the people who get them are obviously people who take what they perceive as active measures to prevent future illnesses. These are the people who are most likely to follow prophylactic measures. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/86 "2009-10-13T19:35:23Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > Any truth to the rumour that Limbaugh is refusing to eat his broccoli, too? I thought all Republicans stopped eating broccoli back in 1990 when George HW Bush banned it from Air Force 1. ---
**Author:** ![mrmisconception](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@mrmisconception](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrmisconception)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/87 "2009-10-14T18:25:11Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I was going to say Maher may be mild compared to her, but at least she doesn’t have her own TV show. > > Then I read this: > > :eek: > > And so what happens when a bunch of conservatives who didn’t get flu shots get sick and die? Conservative pundits will say the flu itself was a plot by the government to kill off the opposition? Or, Limbaugh may get sick and die, prompting others to get vaccinated and doing some actual good for the first time in his useless live. That would be a beautiful thing. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/88 "2009-10-14T20:33:46Z")
> [@Gesturing\_Mildly](#): > > A friend of mine believes this, seriously, and posts on facebook about it daily. It’s gotten to the point that I’m disinclined to spend time with her, because I know she’ll bring it up, and I’m afraid the ensuing disagreement is going to destroy our friendship. A student of mine told me of a Facebook conversation she had with someone who claimed that there was an underground facility under DIA (and every other major airport) that would be used as a gas chamber for anyone who refused the H1N1 vaccine, because the vaccine had been designed by the government to make us more easily manipulated by their propaganda. Honestly, how do these people not end up in an institution? ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/89 "2009-10-14T21:14:06Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Honestly, how do these people not end up in an institution? You mean an underground institution with gas chambers? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/90 "2009-10-14T23:38:51Z")
I would no more take health advice from Bill Maher than I would from Pamela Anderson or Jenny McCarthy, which is to say…I wouldn’t. But I’ve absolutely despised the guy ever since 2006, when at Halloween, Maher dressed up as Steve Irwin, with a stingray barb coming out of his chest, less than two months after Irwin was killed in a horrible accident. What kind of person, as a celebrity that knows they’ll be photographed, makes fun of the death of a guy that was a husband and father, a few weeks after his death? What a flaming asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/91 "2009-10-14T23:57:52Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > A student of mine told me of a Facebook conversation she had with someone who claimed that there was an underground facility under DIA (and every other major airport) that would be used as a gas chamber for anyone who refused the H1N1 vaccine, because the vaccine had been designed by the government to make us more easily manipulated by their propaganda. See, this is confusing me mightily. I thought the H1N1 flu had itself been engineered by the government to make us submit to their will. Isn’t a vaccine then counterproductive? And what about the chemtrails and cellphone towers and CT scans and cathode-ray tube rays and microwaves and all the other stuff that’s already controlling us? Isn’t that, like, redundant? > [@](#): > > Honestly, how do these people not end up in an institution? Easy - they end up [online](http://www.chemtrailagenda.com/orgone.htm). Me, I don’t worry no more about this stuff. I’ll mow down all the nasties with my handy Orgone Blaster. \*Absorbs and ELIMINATES chemtrails -Neutralize the evilness of the towers! -Repel evil entities and aliens, keep them out of your yard and home -Protect your home, yard, then cover your neighborhood, town, or city!! If you don’t protect your areas they’re going to be stomping grounds for the Anuk and demons! These last days, when the veil is lifted, are not going to be friendly! -Clean the air and help you breathe better. Orgone can help those with asthma and those with breathing problems. -Eliminates toxins, poisons and radiation from the air -Defeats chemtrails and keeps your skies clear -Improves breathing, helps those with asthma -Promotes natural health, keeps you from catching every flu virus under the sun -Knocks out bad thunderstorms before they get to your area, chills out tornados headed your way -Asphyxiates evil, aliens can’t breathe around it and it burns them! -Keeps demonic entities out of your home and yard.\* The only trouble is that burning aliens and demonic entities are so darn _noisy_. Does this nice lady sell earplugs? ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/92 "2009-10-15T00:23:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > See, this is confusing me mightily. Join the club. Let’s have jackets made. TINFOIL jackets. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/93 "2009-10-15T02:41:34Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I was done with him when I found out he doesn’t train his dogs, not even to the extent of telling them to stay off the furniture or anything innocuous like that, because to train a dog is to impose artificial human values on their essential dogness, or some such nonsense. Where do they urinate? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/94 "2009-10-15T12:16:16Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > I would no more take health advice from Bill Maher than I would from Pamela Anderson or Jenny McCarthy, which is to say…I wouldn’t. > > But I’ve absolutely despised the guy ever since 2006, when at Halloween, Maher dressed up as Steve Irwin, with a stingray barb coming out of his chest, less than two months after Irwin was killed in a horrible accident. > > What kind of person, as a celebrity that knows they’ll be photographed, makes fun of the death of a guy that was a husband and father, a few weeks after his death? > > What a flaming asshole. You know, while I can see your side of the fence for it being tastless, it’s hard to reconcile that with the fact that this “father” used to dangle his infant child near some pretty vicious reptiles for publicity, as well as just generally tempting fate with wild animals so many times that it’s kinda hard not to laugh at his comeuppance, especially since the irony is that it seems that the manner of his death didn’t involve directly trying to piss off a wild animal for a change. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/95 "2009-10-15T12:25:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Where do they urinate? By the looks of it in his hair. Its one hot mess. ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/96 "2009-10-15T16:50:47Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > She is so full of mercury the top of her head turns red when the temperature is over 90. Nice joke, but change the “red” to “silver”. The red liquid in some thermometers is alcohol (dyed red). ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/97 "2009-10-15T21:14:34Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > You know, while I can see your side of the fence for it being tastless, it’s hard to reconcile that with the fact that this “father” used to dangle his infant child near some pretty vicious reptiles for publicity, as well as just generally tempting fate with wild animals so many times that it’s kinda hard not to laugh at his comeuppance, especially since the irony is that it seems that the manner of his death didn’t involve directly trying to piss off a wild animal for a change. I don’t know, it’s not that hard for me not to laugh at someone’s death. Was Maher giving Irwin some kind of “comeuppance” with his costume? It seems the only people he could really hurt with it are Irwin’s wife and children - Irwin was past caring about it at that point. Do you think disagreement with Irwin’s behavior with animals means Maher had free reign to mock Irwin’s wife and children with his costume? I can’t imagine Irwin’s kids coming upon a photo on the net someday of Maher dressed like that. Fuck irony. That’s trying to get a cheap laugh from someone else’s pain. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/98 "2009-10-15T22:15:22Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > Do you think disagreement with Irwin’s behavior with animals means Maher had free reign to mock Irwin’s wife and children with his costume? I don’t see how the costume described mocks the wife or kids. ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/99 "2009-10-15T22:49:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t see how the costume described mocks the wife or kids. Don’t be obtuse. Maher is clearly wearing the costume to mock Irwin, but do you think that Irwin’s family would be able to laugh it off because he’s mocking their father or spouse and not them? If Maher mocked the death of my wife, would I be able to say “Oh, he’s just mocking my wife for being such a dumbass and dying in a horrible way, but he’s not talking about me. I’m good with it”? Come on. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274/100 "2009-10-16T15:59:00Z")
The OP almost nailed it. It would have been perfect if it simply said: Bill Maher: STFU. period. End of sentence. He’s an ill-informed, extremely arrogant asshole that is a one-trick pony. I hate political “commentators” who are one sided blowholes for one party or the other. The only differences between Bill Maher and Glenn Beck? 1. Bill Maher has an audience that giggles, claps and chants with glee whenever the smarmy little rodent says something to slam Republicans. (Something as sharp-witted as “Bush Sucks” garners laughs-o-plenty). 2. He’s on HBO, so he can swear. 3. He also brings on heavy-duty political thinkers like Ben Affleck. Whoa! That’s it. So for all of you GB bashers who love to watch BM, you are exactly the same as the people you can’t stand that swallow everything that GB shoves at you: Mindless party-first sheeple that run from any original thinking. Glenn Beck is a drama queen… Bill Maher is an arrogant prick. Those types of qualifications don’t really make them experts on anything. [slight hijack] is there anyone out there that is equally critical of bad politics, regardless of party? [/sh] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-maher-stfu-about-food-health-and-especially-vaccines/513274.md?page=6)